The Church at Laodicea

[saint701]

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-laodicean-church-of-revelation

Hello Christianity Oasis!


Blessings!

The Church of Laodicea has long been regarded as representative of that church living during our current generation. It is a church age defined by apathy, lack of understanding, and vision. Our Lord calls us lukewarm and tells us He can't stand the taste of us. Such simply means our normal spiritual condition keeps us from abiding in Him. He spits us out...such indicating He can't stand the taste of us.

Have you ever been a part of or observed a group of people involved in an activity that was truly distasteful? That is what our Lord is talking about here. He has observed our goings about and Christian doings and found our works entirely unworthy to be associated with Him. He associates our works with our boastful claim our success in the world indicates just how much our Lord has favored us in our life. "Oh, I'm so proud of myself and love myself so much because of my wealth and status where I live and work, I could just hug myself to death!” Well, that is what our Lord has observed of us. We have loved our lives into a spiritual state that is equivalent to death. We aren't abiding in Him. We've been cast forth!

He calls us wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Ouch! What a scathing indictment of our spiritual condition! What to do? What to do? What to do? Our Lord tells us what to do. He says to us, (REV.3:18), "[18] I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."

First of all our Lord challenges us to buy gold tried in the fire. What is our Lord saying to us here? Is He asking us to take our money and literally buy gold from Him? Of course not! The price all have been asked to pay to our Lord for salvation has and always will be faith in Him! Here is what the Apostle Peter had to say about the gold of God...

1Pet.1
[7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Next we are challenged to buy white raiment...with what we ask? Where or how or with what can we buy white clothing from God? Haven't you heard?
Gal.3
1.[27] For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Acts.1
[5] For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts.19
1.[2] He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
2.[6] And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
1Cor.4
1.[17] For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.
2Cor.5
1.[17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The testimony of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, died for our sins, and was received up into glory has long been called, “The Good News.” It isn’t the bad news. It isn’t full of lies. It is pregnant with goodness and truth and life and love and glory. Many people around the Earth desire to be Christian and claim to be one, but a majority are taught a denomination or non-denominational limited understanding of the way, the truth, and the life. As many of us who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Water baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is where we first put on Christ and become clothed in white. Becoming baptized in the Holy Spirit confirms what the water baptism represents, the white garments of the living.

We can say we are Christian via mental assent when first water baptized. Mental assent does not qualify as belief. When we are raised up out of the water we wear no clothing and it shows in churches where mental assent abounds. People sit in their pews and give little evidence of the spiritual ecstasy found in churches where Christians are alive in Christ Jesus.

The last thing our Lord requires of us is to anoint our eyes with eye salve that we may see. Well, we ask, “What or where is this eye salve and what does it have to do with my vision? I see things clearly.” Oops! We just confessed the entirety of our problem without even realizing it. We do not have the Spirit. We do not walk in the Spirit. We walk in our physical nature. The natural man cannot receive spiritual things because they are foolishness to him. When our Lord was resurrected He became a “light of revelation to us.” At least He was supposed to be…and if we were clothed with His Spirit we would begin to receive revelation in the knowledge of Him and what it means to have a Spiritual life.

Spiritual sight evolves out of our faith in Christ. Faith has and always will be the price we must pay to buy the things of the Lord. If we have faith in Him and have been baptized in the water and the Spirit our Spiritual life and understanding will evolve. The anointing of the eyes to see Spiritually is a supernatural consequence of that anointing we first received. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is the anointing we first received and it is out of that anointing our Spiritual eyes are opened and our Spiritual education begun. Our faith in God provides for us the Spiritual life of the living, the white clothing of Christ, and Spiritual sight which is attended first by the revealed knowledge of God, and later by God’s Spirit of wisdom and understanding…if we ask.

Love, In Christ Jesus, saint


Blessings!

Suggested by the author
The Church of Philadelphia
The Church at Pergamos